Lituya was built by Conrad Shipyards in Morgan City, Louisiana in 2004. The Lituya is the smallest vessel in the ferry system and, as of 2006[update] exclusively serving the 16.5-nautical-mile (30.6 km) Metlakatla–Ketchikan shuttle route, thus making it the only AMHS vessel to serve Metlakatla. The Lituya is one of the three ferry system vessels designed to operate only in the day (the others are the fast ferries M/V Chenega and M/V Fairweather), so it homeports in Metlakatla where its crew of six also resides. The Lituya has no food service on board and is also the only Alaska Marine Highway vessel to feature an open car deck (the design of the Lituya was based on offshore oil platform supply vessels).

During the night of 30 January 2009, the ship came loose from its moorings in Metlakatla, Alaska while unmanned. It drifted about a mile, running up on Scrub Island in Port Chester harbor. Winds at the time were averaging 26 mph (42 km/h) with gusts to 80 mph (130 km/h); seas were 8 feet (2.4 m). The hull was reported intact but some hull plates were bent and the keel cooler appeared to be leaking antifreeze.[1]